All publications herein are incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference. The following description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
Cancer mortality and morbidity can be greatly improved by the development of effective imaging and targeting agents. Many of the biomarkers adopted today for disease detection has been laborious and not cost-effective. In the case of prostate cancer, it remains controversial if screening for serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) can effectively save lives (Schröder et al. 2009; Andriole et al. 2009). In a more recent study, Schröder et al. (Schröder et al. 2009) concluded that “to prevent one prostate-cancer death, 1410 men (or 1068 men who actually underwent screening) would have to be screened, and an additional 48 men would have to be treated”. The ineffectiveness of screening for the presence of cancers in men justifies the development of more effective imaging and targeting agents, that can detect tumor earlier, follow tumor images in patients more reliably, and if necessary, treat cancer patients earlier to regress tumors when they are still small at the primary or at metastatic sites. This has not been achieved because of the barriers encountered in the imaging and targeting of cancers, due to tumor cell heterogeneity.
The area of developing more effective imaging and targeting agents is therefore considered as unmet medical need.